A hole in the field in Winnipeg meant the Raiders and Packers played an 80-yard preseason game.

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Officials assess the location where the CFL goal post holes were, before an NFL preseason football game between the Oakland Raiders and the Green Bay Packers in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019. In the NFL the field goal posts are located at the back of the end zone and the Canadian Football League has the posts at the front of the end zone. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)

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The Raiders, as you well know, have been trying to avoid playing in the crumbling, leaking East Bay stadium for years now.

The way they see it, the Oakland A’s dirt and the recently-rolled, in-no-way-seamless grass that fills out some of the playing field is an embarrassment and is borderline hazardous.

The Raiders and the A’s are the only NFL and MLB teams that still share a stadium, and while the housemates are saving on rent in this inflated housing market, both parties have been over the arrangement for a while.

Yes, the “Frankenturf” might have some mystique amongst fans who fell for the team in the era of sideline cigarettes and $55,000 annual salaries (and Jon Gruden, the pied piper of that crew), but when you have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in players, being rough-around-the-edges is more a nuisance than a feature.

The way the Raiders see it, the fewer games they can play under those conditions, the better.

But the Raiders were also keen to move Thursday’s game because of money. Because of course they were. The Raiders saved $500,000 by outsourcing their second “home” preseason game to some nice folks in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada — On Ice Entertainment.

All that company had to do was convert a Canadian Football League field — which is 110 yards long, not including end zones, and features goal-line goalposts — into a smaller NFL-sized field.

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A hole, left from the excavation of a CFL goalpost, was so deep that one end zone at the IG Stadium was deemed unplayable.

It was the Packers — the Raiders’ opponent for this farce of a “game” — that seemed most aggrieved by the hole in the ground pregame, according to boots on the ground with Twitter. I guess the Raiders were so used to crappy conditions that they were interested to see what would happen.

Either way, the compromise was to move the pylons 10 yards forward.

Yep, they played on an 80-yard field. No kickoffs, no normal field goals, and, as a safety precaution, no good players.

Either way, this debacle falls on the shoulders of On Ice Entertainment, who reportedly had a crew of 650 and a budget of over $1 million (presumably Canadian… which might explain the mishap) to convert the field.

But the Raiders and the NFL are hardly blameless in this ridiculous ordeal — which seems to be par for the course with those two.

I mean, who was the guy the Raiders sent to Winnipeg? And what did he do instead of inspect the field? No offense (sorey, I meant offence), but there’s not like there was much to distract him.

And as for the NFL, why was this game allowed to be played? Because seriously, an 80-yard field?

Yes, I know the answer is “money”, but ultimately that’s not a good excuse.

The NFL claimed that “the field met the mandatory practices for the maintenance of surfaces for NFL games based on an inspection yesterday.”

Nailed it.

Maybe the Raiders’ envoy was in charge of that, too.

It’s not like the NFL has canceled preseason games before — in fact, they did it only a few years ago. The 2016 Hall of Fame Game was canceled because the artificial turf in Canton was unplayable. In 2001, artificial turf at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia (home of both the Eagles and Phillies) was deemed unsafe for play and led to a game cancellation.

Let’s go back to the Vet in 2001, where the Eagles, Ravens preseason game was canceled because of a crappy field. pic.twitter.com/FUb4Vt7JxI

OAKLAND — The team the Raiders hope to be when they grow up identified itself in Week 1. Their maturity level will be tested in a big way Sunday at 1:05 p.m. when the Raiders host the Kansas City Chiefs at the Coliseum. The Raiders are younger, faster, stronger. They’re also facing the gold standard […]